Senior year is when students start applying for colleges and planning their career path. With the November 1st priority application deadline just passed, many Arrowhead seniors have already completed their applications. While November first is when many colleges prefer to have all information submitted, don’t worry if you didn’t. The final acceptance date isn’t until march 2016 for the fall semester for most UW schools.

Some students will take the required ACT exam years before applying to college and others will take it just before the application deadline. Some students will take the ACT once and others will use all twelve chances allowed. However there are also students at Arrowhead who  who take the SAT as college applications vary depending on what is required of the desired college.

In the college application process, some  students were required to write a personal statement and others were not. There are even the few who have forgone the college experience all together, deciding that the pricey college fees are too much or simply to take a year off to save for money before attending.

“I look for fun campuses, good education opportunities and a lively student body,” said senior Will DeWeerdt when asked what he’d like to have at his dream campus.

Arrowhead senior Taylor Radtke said, “Something that I consider to be a really good college is ASU (Arizona State University). It has a tutors for every single department and dorms are split up by major so that if you all have a test you can all study together on your floor. Or if a school is recognized for your program so you know if you’ll go there you’ll be successful.”

Many factors are taken into account when Arrowhead seniors decide which college is the right one for them. Some focus solely on what programs are offered or how the programs are run. Some students just like by the surrounding area and design of the campus.

“I really liked just the layout of [Arizona State University],” said Radtke. “And also, if [your desired college doesn’t] have a campus that you liked, you could go to another campus within an hour. I also liked that if you injured yourself, they had golf carts to take you to classes and there were also busses that took you off campus.”

The little things like golf carts can persuade many students into attending. DeWeerdt said he was impressed with UW – La Crosse’s suite style dorms.

DeWeerdt says, “The hardest transition I’ve heard of when you go to college is the complete lack of privacy, but the suite-style dorms had their own bathrooms and were just bigger in general. But you need to have three roommates.”

“I also liked that the gym at La Crosse was free,” said DeWeerdt. “You didn’t have to pay extra to have a membership there. You can also rent a bike or roller skates for just a couple bucks for the whole day. I think the only thing at the gym that wasn’t free was like a yoga classes.”

Senior at Arrowhead, Nicole Hospel, says she toured UW – Eau Claire and said the best thing about it was the scenery: “The whole campus is divided into lower and upper campuses and even though there’s a ton of stairs, upper campus was set on top of a hill that looked over the Chippewa River and the view was really amazing. I also heard that student’s go tubing down the river every year.”

Hospel also said, “Eau Claire had an amazing Student Union where all the students socialized. There were a lot of restaurants and on the upper floors they had places for studying and tutors. In one of their gyms they even had a bowling alley and a place where students would go kayaking in the swimming pool.”

With all these extras at universities, it’s no wonder paying for colleges can be pricey. Paying for colleges was one of the biggest concerns for Hospel and DeWeerdt.

DeWeerdt said, “My mom has saved up for college and then I’ll be doing student loans.”

“I guess I’m pretty scared about [student loans],” Hospel said. “I’m planning on applying for scholarships through a few organizations and then also student loans which will take forever to pay off. But it’s definitely worth it.”